Dutch Oven Pork Roast with Red Cabbage & Apple

I am a great fan of finding ways to use cheaper cuts of meat - they are often tastier and with a large table to feed its just not economical to buy the fancy little chops that the supermarkets offer in their plastic wrapped, styrofoam trays!


This recipe is a winner in that it can be thrown together into a dutch oven in the half hour before school pick up then bunged in the oven and left to work its magic. Getting home from after school winter sports you then walk into a house smelling delicious and a kitchen warmed by the oven, then all that's left is to make some mashed potato and zap some frozen peas in the microwave and dinner is served!

1 large pork round roast - it will shrink to about half the size
1 brown onion
1/4 red cabbage
1 thumb sized knob of fresh ginger
1/4 cup raisins
6 whole cloves
4 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 cup white wine or cider
2 cups chicken stock
3 large green apples
Mashed potatoes & frozen peas to serve!

Preheat your oven to 170•C.
Heat your dutch oven or Le Creuset pot on the stove top, add a little oil and brown your round roast, giving it good colour on all sides. This will take a little time so while you're doing that start chopping the veg. First the onions, thinly slice them and when you're about half way through browning the meat add them in to the sides. Remember to give them a stir and turn the heat down a little if they're browning too fast.
Then shred the red cabbage using a mandolin and peel and thinly slice the ginger, cutting again into rough matchsticks. Add these to your pot also along with the raisins, cloves and pepper and salt and finish browning your meat along with stirring the vegetables around the edges until the cabbage wilts down a little. Leave your meat with the lovely browned fat side up, this will help keep the exposed meat nice and moist during the cooking.
Now add the balsamic vinegar - when cooking red cabbage it is important to use an acidic liquid to keep the beautiful colour. Let this reduce a little then add your wine or cider and the chicken stock, scraping down the edges and bottom of the pot. The liquid should come about half way up the meat. Bring it to a gentle simmer then transfer the pot to the oven with the lid on tightly.

Leave for about 2.5hrs in the oven to cook slowly away...

Check the pot to make sure it is not drying out, then get your mashed potatoes on. Peel, core and quarter the green apples and add them around the top for the last 10minutes.

To serve, take the pork out and take off the string holding it all together, remove the fat and discard, then cut into very thick slices - if you can! Some of it will probably flake and fall apart. The Americans, bless their carotid arteries call this 'pulled pork'. Pork is often a dry meat, even when cooked slowly like this, but smothered in the beautiful cabbage and apple with the delicious juices the result is mouthwatering!

Divine Tomato Soup

I forgot how fantastic this tomato soup is! Dad used to make it at their Pearl Beach holiday house when friends came up in winter.


We would all rug up and walk down to the beach where the waves were enormous and would crash down so ferociously that the earth would literally tremble beneath our feet, and the water would be churned into foam. Everyone would get back to the little beach house freezing and famished, our eyes stinging with the salt spray, cheeks scoured red from the wind, and hair whipped into a tangled mess.


This soup, served steaming hot into enormous black lacquer bowls was always met with revered silence - the proof of a great dish! - and everyone would beg him for the recipe. No doubt he felt a bit wicked knowing how incredibly easy it was to make, yet how satisfying the result was! It was the perfect start to many beautiful winter luncheons. 

3 cans good quality organic tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
2 chicken stock cubes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chill flakes (optional)
a handful of basil leaves, finely sliced
parmesan cheese
fresh bread and butter, or croutons, to serve.

Put the tomatoes, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, chilli, stock cubes and half a tin of water into a pot and bring to a gentle boil then turn the heat down and let it simmer and the flavours develop for 20mins or so. Blend roughly with a bar mix leaving the soup still a little chunky here and there then put back on the stove until you're ready to serve it. Then finely slice your basil leaves and freshly grate your parmesan using the big side of the grater so you get nice big shredded pieces of cheese.

Make sure the bowls are warmed and the soup is really hot - this is important so the cheese melts a little on the surface of the soup! Ladle into bowls and stir in a decent amount of the beautiful aromatic basil leaves, then sprinkle the surface of the hot soup with a really generous amount of parmesan.

Blissfully easy & utterly delicious!